MONDRAKER CRAFTY CARBON XR MIND

Integrated data-logging comes to mountain biking courtesy of Mondraker’s MIND system

- Alan Muldoon

£8,999 + £299 for MIND / 29in / mondraker.com

NEED TO KNOW

• Mondraker Crafty Carbon XR with built-in MIND suspension data acquisition

• The Öhlins TTX Air shock delivers 150mm of rear travel and is paired with a 170mm Öhlins RXF38 M.1 fork

• myMondraker app walks you through suspension set-up

• Metrics like travel, number of bottom outs, and jumps are displayed in the app, along with GPS routes

• MIND technology is calibrated to each specific model and as such, it cannot be swapped from one bike to another

We live in a world of big data. We willingly give it away and it’s mostly collected for the benefit of third parties – whether that’s serving up your favorite products when shopping online or predicting which trimester you’re in. It’s scary, but US retailer Target is likely to know if your daughter is pregnant before you do. That’s how sophisticated data collection, analysis, and prediction have become.

Now, you’re probably thinking, “what’s this got to do with mountain biking?” Well, have you ever wondered what’s going on with your suspension? We set the sag with O-rings on our shock and fork, but we really have no idea how much travel we’re using as we rip down the trail, the two basic data points being static sag and maximum travel. What happens in-between is anyone’s guess, unless of course, we use a suspension data logger.

And while the days of bulky black boxes bolted to the down tube are long gone, even state-of-the-art units like Motion Instruments require a certain amount of home engineering to get them mounted to the shock. And the reason is simple – a universal system needs adapting to each specific frame design so some degree of ingenuity is required to get it to fit.